Using material from an article by Allan Phillip in The Musical Times,
November 1953

Living and working just to the north of Lewes
for many years, and being very much involved with inspections of bells and
belfries for both the Diocese and the Sussex Churches Bell Restoration Fund,
gave me many opportunities to visit churches in both East and West Sussex.

The round tower of Southease Church
[Photo: courtesy of the church website]

There are three round-towered churches in
Sussex, all being along or near the banks of the River Ouse which flows into
the sea at Newhaven.

Southease church (dedication
unknown) is built of flint and rubble, with stone dressings. It comprises a
nave, the eastern end of which forms the chancel, a circular western tower,
and a south porch. Once, earlier, it also had a chancel and two small
aisles, possibly the same date as the apparently pre-Norman nave. The only
visible remains of such aisles are single arches, now blocked, set into both
of the walls of the nave. Foundations of the lost chancel and aisles have
been found and were marked out with metal strips in the turf of the
churchyard.

This history accords with the date of
Charter dated 966 AD when Edgar, ruler of all Britain ". . . [do
grant] the church of Sueise [Southease] with twenty-eight hides of
land and the church of Titelescombe [Telscombe] with two hides . . .
"

Another link with antiquity are the bells and
the frame and fittings. The earliest bell, the treble, is inscribed IOHANNES
ALEYN ME FECIT and dates from about 1290, being the third oldest in Sussex.
The second bell is also mediaeval, and the fittings date from the earliest
time when bells were swing-chimed, the the other (tenor) bell has no
inscription but is thought to have been cast around 1260. The bells have one
piece timber wheels for swing chiming and hang on a frame of unusual design
with the main central post being an integral part of the spire roof
structure. (Suss. Arch. Coll.
xvi, 224., and George Elphick, Sussex Bells and Belfries, also my report
to the PCC, 1995)

The
present organ is a fine example of 18th century design and craftsmanship,
having been built in 1790 by Allen of Soho. It probably started life in a
great house in London whence it passed to St Anne's Church in Lewes, then to
Offham, just north of Lewes, and finally to Southease. It had suffered badly
during these travels, and needed careful restoration in 1965 by N. P. Mander
Ltd when it was brought back to its original appearance and tonal scheme.
There are few organs of this type and date still in existence. St Margaret's
Westminster, York Minster, and the private Chapel at Buckingham palace have
similar ones.

Unfortunately no record
has yet been found of previous instruments or of music in the church during
the west gallery period. A search of the Churchwardens' Accounts could
provide such evidence.

The present organ in Southease Church
[Photo: courtesy of the church website]

Piddinghoe Church

Another or these round towers is to be found
a few miles further downstream, at Piddinghoe. Canon MacDermott reported
in his book Sussex Church Music in the Past, 1922 that there was a
a barrel organ in poor condition in the church at St John's Church,
Piddinghoe. Langwill and Bolton, Church and Chamber Barrel-Organs,
2nd Ed. 1970, goes on to report that this instrument is indeed in bad
condition and with no casing or pipes, although the barrels remained. It
had three stops, 2 barrels each of 10 tunes, and 28 notes.

Further
reference, together with a picture, may be found in an article in The
Musical Times for November 1953, p 517, written by Allan Phillip,
wherein he gives a slightly greater description of the instrument, its
condition at that time, and its history, although much of the rest of the
article refers obliquely to MacDermott and his anecdotes of Sussex barrel
organs without actually referring to him by name.

Phillip states
that the organ, 'a fine example of an early nineteenth-century organ' was
actually installed about AD 1790. This statement, (already in quotes in
his article) obviously comes from another source, for Langwill and Boston
state that the instrument was restored in 1790, thus suggesting an earlier
date for its installation.

Confusingly
Phillips states that there were at that time 'three cylinders, (not two as
in Langwill and Boston) "which could be shifted by a handle at the side to
change the tunes, and could play five hymns an two chants. Some of these
old organs had projecting pins or metal staples, as in the musical boxes
of early years; but in this case the cylinders are studded with wire
projections, which, as they are revolved, engaged with connections on a
wooden shaft and regulated the admission of air to the pipes. . . The
bellows remain, but the handle has disappeared. There are three stops
which are named 'Open Diapason', 'Principal', and 'Fifteenth'. The
instrument has been, as far as possible, renovated and appears tom be in a
good state of preservation, [but without pipes]. . . It has not been
played for about one hundred years. The oldest inhabitant, a man of some
eighty-seven years who died only a few years ago, could remembers a very
small child hearing the organ in use at the Sunday services". This
suggests a date about 1880 when the organ might have last been played, and
quite probably this coincided with the removal of the west gallery during
the 1882 restoration. The present organ dates from that time.

There was
indeed a west gallery in the church, removed as part of Victorian
restoration, but it is unlikely the instrument was ever housed there, but
rather more was used at the back of the church, the village band and quire
having originally been above it in the gallery. Phillips suggested that
the instrument was light enough to have been used for secular purposes
over and above church use, and that indeed it had been so used at the
local ale house on occasions. No source is recorded for that observation.

Barrel
Organ: The Story Of The Mechanical Organ And Its Repair," by Arthur W.
J. G. Ord-Hume. Published in 1978 by A. S. Barnes and Co., New York,
contains another illustration of this organ, entitled 'Remains of a large
barrel organ at Piddinghoe'.